Prior to aircraft take-off, many airlines require that the aircraft's brake temperature be cool enough to provide safe emergency operation “rejected take-off” capability. To accommodate this requirement, the temperature of each brake and/or wheel of the aircraft is monitored and output so as to enable aircraft personnel to determine when the temperature of the brakes and/or wheels has reached a “safe” take-off temperature.
To monitor the aircraft brake and/or wheel temperature, brake temperature monitoring systems (BTMS) are employed. These systems typically include one or more temperature sensors (e.g., thermocouples, RTD's, infrared sensors, or the like) at each wheel and/or brake, and a controller operatively coupled to the temperature sensors. Temperature readings as measured by the temperature sensors are communicated to the controller, which in turn processes the temperature data (e.g., by filtering, averaging, scaling, etc.) and outputs the data to a display device, for example, for monitoring on the flight deck.
Due to the inherently slow nature of brake and wheel cooling, brake temperatures can become an issue following a series of closely-spaced routine stops, or following a single high energy stop. Further, short haul aircraft operations with short turn times are prone to brake temperature problems due to residual heat energy in the brakes and/or wheels.
Conventional brake temperature monitoring systems only provide a temperature output, without any indication of the “wait time” for the brake and/or wheel to reach a predetermined safe temperature. Further, many brake temperature monitoring systems require the aircraft to wait 10-15 minutes after landing so as to ensure brake temperatures have reached their peak value.